Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol | Volume 5, Issue 3 | Research Article | Open Access
Christy Pu1*, Jiun-Yu Guo2, Yu-Hua-Yeh1 and Placide Sankara3
1Department of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan 2Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan 3Department of Medicine, Ministry of Health, Burkina Faso
*Correspondance to: Christy Pu
Fulltext PDFBackground: Prevalence of stroke has been increasing in African countries. Obesity and smoking are well-known risk factors for stroke. However, few studies have focused on whether obese individuals and smokers perceive obesity and smoking, respectively, as personal risk factors for stroke. Methods: Face-to-face interviews were administered to the participants. The sample of 1600 included 750 individuals from the general population, 110 patients with stroke, 400 individuals at risk, and 340 healthcare workers. The participants were asked whether they thought that stroke is preventable, whether they considered obesity and smoking as risk factors for stroke in general, and whether they perceived these factors as personal risk factors for stroke. Factors associated with accurate perception were analyzed using logistic regression with a model-building process. Results: Accuracy of risk perceptions for stroke is extremely low in Burkina Faso. Only 56% and 37.25% of the general population and people at stroke risk, respectively, knew stroke was preventable. We found that health care workers significantly outperformed other population's inaccuracy for all questions. However, <50% of obese healthcare workers perceived obesity as a personal risk factor for stroke. Among the current smokers, 27%, 45%, 38% and 84% of the general population, patients with stroke, individuals at risk, and healthcare workers, respectively, perceived smoking as a personal risk factor for stroke. Conclusion: Non-communicable diseases such as stroke have often been overlooked in lowerincome countries. Burkina Faso suffers from low accuracy of risk perception for stroke. The significantly higher accuracy of healthcare workers suggests the importance of providing health education to all people.
Non-communicable diseases; Risk Factors; Risk perception; Stroke; Developing countries
Pu C, Guo J-Y, Yu-Hua-Yeh, Sankara P. Comparison of Stroke Risk Perception among General Population, People at Risk, Stroke Patients and Healthcare Workers in Burkina Faso. Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol. 2020; 5(3): 1059.